Pendulum
by Naraxxamas
Summary: No longer a NaruTen, but a NaruOC.


Pendulum

The Start.

_I don't own Naruto or any of the characters included. _

_The idea for this story had been swimming around in my mind for the past few weeks, and like any ferocious plot bunny, it attacked me. I couldn't bear not to write it, because of the shortage of this particular pairing. No, this will not be NaruHina or NaruSaku, nor is it Yaoi, because if it were, I would shoot myself before I even began to write it. So if any fangirls were praying it would be 'man love', you guys are out of luck. Silly fangirls..._

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_Everytime the pendulum would swing, it would make a clicking noise at the apex. As the child looked on, he could comprehend what most adults could not. This Pendulum... Was the opposite of the Universe. This was order, in the midst of chaos. The boy, as he observed, thought of the dreaded monotony the pendulum held. As long as it was kept oiled, and taken care of, it would never stray from the beaten path. How absolutely dreadful that would be. His mind worked around the concept of having to follow order, and found it held a certain ominous feeling._

_Nah, life would never be like that for him. He wouldn't be able to bear it._

_"Naruto? We need to head back to your apartment."_

_The boy smiled at the Sandaime Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. "Yeah, old man, let's go."_

_The five year old walked out of the room with the seventy year old, and into the sunlight of the hot Konoha summer._

_----------_

What seemed like a snippet of time had passed since then, when in reality, it had seven years. Now, after a small run in with a chuunin named Mizuki, Naruto had been instated as an official Konoha genin, by his sensei, Umino Iruka. Also, gone were the days of the Kill-Me-Now Orange jumpsuits. Naruto had grown to find them quite repugnant, and had foregone them the last time he had gone clothes shopping. Instead, he favored black longsleeved shirts, worn jeans, and a white chuunin's vest (and when I mean white, I mean WHITE). Where he had gotten the last item, no one had a clue, and personally, he didn't think it was any of their business anyway. Neither had he bought a new pair of sandals. When he had gone for them, he had spotted a pair of tennis shoes (Even though he had no idea what tennis was), that was black with white toes. These, paired with his black fingerless gloves, had made him, in his opinion, quite dashing. Even the spiky hair was grown out, with a ponytail in between his shoulderblades. It wasn't obscenely long, like the Frog Sannin's, or gayish, like the Snake Sannin's picture in the Bingo Book.

In fact, the girls of the village thought he was quite dashing as well, and even though he was regarded as the Village's Pariah, Demon spawn, and Monster, he had his own fanclub, nearly equal to Uchiha Sasuke's. _Hmph," _Naruto thought, _"Spit on him."_

He was a bit saddened by the fact that the one girl he wanted, was actually the head of the other's club. He had had his eyes on Haruno Sakura for a very, very long time, but try as he might, she stayed unaffected by his charms. He had briefly considered the possibility that Sasuke had placed some type of wierd mind control jutsu, but he ruled that out. There was no genjutsu masterable by a normal genin that could possibly phase Sakura. Her ability to dispell them amazed Naruto, even more than the odd pink color of her hair.

"Tsk tsk," he chided to himself, "she's not the only with wierd colored hair. Honestly, who has blonde hair in Konoha?"

He made his way to the Hokage tower where he was supposed to meet up with his new sensei. He hadn't the foggiest as to who it might be, but seeing as how the Sandaime had actually opted to put him under apprenticeship, he surmised that it wouldn't be Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, or Kurenai. Out of the Jounin he knew, that left Genma, Gekkou, and Anko. He wished dearly that it wouldn't be the latter. He knew what would come from being under the tutelage of the Snake woman; perversion rivaling Jiraiya's, the Frog Sannin, and an insatiable thirst for blood. To be honest, he was fond of neither.

He pushed through the double doors of the Hokage tower and made his way to the upper reaches of the skyscraper-esque building. He absentmindedly cracked his knuckles all the way up. It was a nervous habit he had developed in his orphanage days. Whenever the matrons had beaten him, he would crawl away to a corner, and begin to pop them. It helped him concentrate.

Once more, he pushed himself through another set of double doors, and arrived at his destination. The two grand, polished oak doors ahead of him signified the end of his journey, and instead of acting like a civilized person would, he did the one thing that could probably get his throat slit by an ANBU. He kicked the doors open.

Just like he had predicted, an ANBU had his sword at the teen's throat, and another person had their fingertips arranged in a star shape on his temple. He shifted his eyes as slowly as possible, and his stomach fell to the bottom of his soles. _"Anko..."_

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"Lemme get this straight, old man." A sharp whack on the back of his head corrected his speech. "_Hokage-sama_, you want me to go with _her_ for three years to train in Snake style combat? What for? Why can't I just learn _Goken_ with Gai and his team? Personally," he looked over at Anko, who was glaring at him, "I think I'm better suited for that type of style. You know," he flexed his muscles, "All brains and brawn. No finesse."

He thought this speech would work, even though he had just came up with it on the fly. Things usually worked out for him when he did that. Why wouldn't it fail him now?

"Because," Anko began, "if we leave you with Gai, there's no telling what would happen, and second, I _personally_ volunteered to take you under my wing. Besides, who else in the entire Fire Country uses Snake Style? Come on, it'd give you a drop on the Uchiha." Her voice took on a singsong tone to it in the last part of the sentence, which creeped Naruto out a little bit. Still, who would pass up a chance to learn something the Uchiha would not?

"I'll do it," he yelled. "Even though I'm gonna miss Shikamaru and the guys, I'd gladly leave for some extra power."

The Sandaime and Anko both nodded, and Naruto dashed out the door to pack. Anko propped herself up against the wall, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Do you think," she said slowly, "he even knows when we're leaving? I could've _sworn_ I didn't tell him."

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**_FIN._**

_**Tell me how you liked it, because personally, I thought it was crap. **_

_**Oh, and to ruin more people's fun, this won't be NaruAnko, either. HAHAHA!**_


End file.
